"Winter Solstice, Camelot Station" is a poem by John M. Ford, about the

Knights of the Round Table The Knights of the Round Table (, , ) are the legendary knights of the fellowship of King Arthur that first appeared in the Matter of Britain literature in the mid-12th century. The Knights are a chivalric order dedicated to ensuring the peace ...

at a

train station A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing suc ...

Camelot Camelot is a legendary castle and Royal court, court associated with King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described ...

. It was first published as Ford's

Christmas card A Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to Christmastide and the holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during ...

,The Disappearance of John M. Ford
by Isaac Butler, at

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

; published November 15, 2019; retrieved October 27, 2020 and came to broader attention after

Jane Yolen Jane Hyatt Yolen (born February 11, 1939) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and children's books. She is the author or editor of more than 400 books, of which the best known is '' The Devil's Arithmetic'', a Holocaust novella. H ...

submitted it to

Parke Godwin Parke Godwin (January 28, 1929 – June 19, 2013) was an American writer. He won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella in 1982 for his story " The Fire When It Comes". He was a native of New York City, where he was born in 1929. He was the ...

for inclusion in the 1988 anthology ''Invitation to Camelot''.Introduction to "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station", by

, in ''Invitation to Camelot''; published March 1988, by

Ace Books Ace Books is a publisher of science fiction (SF) and fantasy books founded in New York City in 1952 by A. A. Wyn, Aaron A. Wyn. It began as a genre publisher of mystery fiction, mysteries and western (genre), westerns, and soon branched out int ...

; p. 243; "Long after this volume was finished and mellowing on the publisher's shelf, Jane Yolen sent me "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station" by JOHN M. FORD, and even called to herald its arrival. I told her the book was closed. 'Read it anyway,' Jane commanded. 'It's brilliant.'"

Reception

"Winter Solstice, Camelot Station" won the 1989

World Fantasy Award—Short Fiction The World Fantasy Awards are given each year by the World Fantasy Convention for the best fantasy fiction published in English during the previous calendar year. The awards have been described by book critics such as ''The Guardian'' as a "presti ...

,1989 - the 15th World Fantasy Convention
at WorldFantasy.org; retrieved October 27, 2020 and the 1989

Rhysling Award __NOTOC__ The Rhysling Awards are an annual award given for the best speculative poetry, science fiction, fantasy, or horror poem of the year. The award name was dubbed by Andrew Joron in reference to a character in a science fiction story: the bl ...

for Best Long Poem (tied with

Bruce Boston Bruce Boston (July 16, 1943 – November 11, 2024) was an American speculative fiction writer and poet. Early years Boston was born in Chicago and grew up in Southern California.Diane SeversonInterview with Bruce Boston''Amazing Stories'' March ...

's "In the Darkened Hours"). SFPA Rhysling Award Archive
at SFPoetry.com; retrieved October 27, 2020

References

External links

*{{ISFDB title, 44161 World Fantasy Award–winning works Modern Arthurian fiction Works by John M. Ford